1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to musical instruments, specifically to an electronic keyboard with a design significantly different from a piano keyboard so that a large variety of chord groupings and note patterns can be played with little or no skill.
2. Description of Prior Art
Ever since the invention of the electronic keyboard or organ, several inventors have expanded upon the original musical instruments to provide for the more-or-less automatic playing of certain chord groupings with the touch of a single key. One of the reasons for this feature being invented was so that novice keyboardists could play something that sounds difficult and meaningful with little or no skill. It reduced the skill level for play of some chords down to playing one key at a time. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, the development of legitimate chord playing skills on a piano-like keyboard typically takes several years to master. For this reason, the ability to play a complex chord with a single key became a novel and attractive feature to many novice keyboardists. The sound of the chord groupings is usually impressive and more pleasing to the ear than just a monophonic performance.
One of the problems with this one key approach, however, is that the chord grouping is fixed, and quickly becomes redundant. To overcome this, additional inventions were subsequently created to provide for the rhythmic and syncopated playing of the notes within the chord group, commonly known as a band-in-a-box feature on many keyboards and organs today. Although this feature or capability is somewhat interesting and has several varieties of rhythms from which to choose, it is still very inflexible for a live or professional performance. For example, the tempo of the rhythm is manually set and therefore the tempo of the song is static. Such a performance could not accommodate a pause or ritard in the musical score. A person playing such an automatic instrument could not follow a conductor or make dynamic modifications to the tempo. The use of such a feature in conjunction with other musicians is difficult, because all must follow the tempo of the band-in-a-box, and there is no practical ability to re-synchronize on the fly should the need arise.
In later years, inventions such as the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,914 issued Jun. 28, 1983 to inventors Dale M. Uetrecht and Carlton J. Simmons, Jr., provided for ways to identify the logically associated chord group by determining the root of the chord from the keyboardist's performance. This particular feature was to enhance the simple playing of a single line melody with associated chord accompaniment. This feature could also accommodate normal playing of a plurality of notes simultaneously, and determining the root of the chord, and then voicing additional notes related to the chord group. Although this was a singular idea, it still did not provide any flexibility to the choice of notes being played within the particular chord group, or how to loud play them, or what kind of syncopation or note rhythm would be used.
The present chord-playing technology available on the retail market lacks the means to introduce the human element commonly associated with such playing dynamics known as key velocity, tempo and pedal. Other human elements would include the absence of notes within the chord group being played, as well as a choice of which notes within the chord group to play. In addition, there has been no capability provided to dynamically change the chord note rhythm pattern, or to make it even determined by the keyboardists playing style. The ability to have dynamic control over these various elements has been virtually non-existent. One of main reasons for these limitations has been related to the object of these inventions striving to remain backwards-compatible with the typical piano keyboard interface. By so limiting, the voicing of various chord groupings by computer assistance have been limited to the playing of one key for each chord group.
Some inventors have even gone as far as to create a dual function for a selected portion of the keyboard or organ register so as to enable the playing of a unique chord group with a single key. The dual purpose of the key is typically defined by some physical indicator adjacent to the key itself. For example, if the key is to play a C minor 7th chord, then this label is typically printed adjacent to the key or is illuminated adjacent to the key when active. A toggle switch is typically employed to change the function of the keyboard register. The problem with this approach is that it limits the use of the keyboard register to only one of its functions at a time. The chords feature can not be utilized without disabling an important part of the keyboard for normal playing, and vice versa.
It was not until the invention of the HOTZ MIDI Translator, U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,738, that a technology was introduced which would allow human choice in selectively playing one or more notes within a chord grouping without the possibility of playing a wrong note. Even so, this correct note technology stops short in its implementation because of its lack of attention to experimental flexibility needed by musicians. Specifically, it can not allow for musical experimentation with chord structure. One must access a computer menu with a mouse device, and select a specific chord, such as D flat minor Augmented, and then assign it to the appropriate zone on the keyboard device. The computer program then assigns the contents of a look-up table for the specific chord to the keys on the keyboard. This complex process does not allow creative experimentation in a timely sense. There is no ability to utilize more than one function at a time to dynamically vary the chord structure. One can merely select a specific chord name from a long laundry list of chord names. This is essentially no different than the current implementation on modem devices such as the player-organs or keyboards where numerous, but static chord possibilities may be selected or accessed. The prior art lacks a keyboard device that can play correct notes within a selected chord group, but also dynamically and directly modify the chord structure pertaining to its quality, interval, octave or scale during a live musical performance.